After presenting on Destiny in the
Qur’an I have had learned a lot about the sacred text. Before starting this
unit on the Qur’an I never really learned anything about the sacred text of
Islamic faith. Yes, I had a brief overview of the religion as a whole and I
could identify some core teachings of Islam, but the sacred text was an
absolute mystery to me. At first when I opened the book, Approaching the Qur’an, introduced and translated by Michael Sells,
I had no idea what to expect. Coming from a loving Catholic family I had never
even laid eyes on the Qur’an let alone read it.
My
first assignment was to do a brief presentation on Destiny in the Qur’an. I was
lost in a world of utter confusion. I had never even opened the Qur’an and I
had no idea what to expect awaiting in the pages. When I first started to read
the passage I found it pretty. It had a slight melodic tune and was pleasing to
read. After I read the passage a couple times I began to wonder if the meaning
would be any different if I listened to it because of the sound visions we have
been learning about in class. After listening to it, I found that it sounded
more like a song. Each word was drawn out and pronounced like a tune.
I agree that the Quran is soothing in its beauty; it flows and it can be read both with a straightforward speaking voice or as a song, which I think can be very powerful. Having heard many different renditions of these, the difference in gender inflection seems to change the meaning.
ReplyDeleteI also had very little contact with the Qur'an before this class, and I agree with most of what you say. On one point, though, I disagree. I believe we all knew more about the Qur'an before this class than you might think. Many of the messages in the Qur'an are similar, if not the same, as messages from the old and new testaments of the bible. I think the Qur'an just says these messages in a different way. I think if we stripped off all the flowery speech we would find that the Qur'an is much like the other sacred texts we have read.
ReplyDelete